Sanitary guard for telephone transmitters and receivers.



No 627,820. Patented June 27, I899.

C. B. DUOLITTLE 8:. E. H. EVEBIT. SANITARY GUARD FOB TELEPHONE TRANSMITTEBS AND RECEIVERS.

(Application Med Mar. 1, 1899.)

(No Model.)

m: uoflms PETERS co, PHOTO-LWHQ. WASHINGTON. D, c.

' NITED STATES ,IPATENT- men.

CHARLES E. DOOLITTLE AND EDVARD H. EVERIT, OF NEW HAVEN,

' CONNECTICUT.

SANITARY GUARD FOR TELEPHONE TRANSMITTERS AND RECEIVERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 627,820, dated June 27, 1899.

- Application filed March 1, 1899. Serial No. 707,348. (No model) To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that we, CHARLES l3. DOOLIT- TLE and EDWARD H. EVERIT, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Sanitary Guards for Telephone-Transmitters; and we do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and

represent, in-

Figure 1, a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, of a telephone-transmitter provided with a sanitary guard constructed in accordance with our invention; Fig. 2, a

detached view in section of the guard.

Our invention relates to an improvement in sanitary guards for telephone-transmitters, the object being to produce at a low cost for manufacture a simple and effective guard which will not interfere with the use of a telephone-transmitter, but which will avoid for the user thereof the danger of contagion owing to the presence thereupon or therein of any of the various forms of bacilli which are now well known to communicate disease in such ways and which are alwaysfound upon those portions of the transmitters of telephones which are brought into contact with the month.

With these ends in View our invention consists in certain details of construction,-as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claim.

As'shown in the drawings, the body of the guard is frusto-conical in form and furnished at its outer edge with an annular flange A, whereby the said body is adapted to fit within and over the outer edge of the mouthpiece B of a telephone-transmitter C in such a manner as to retain the said body within the mouthpiece, to'which it conforms in shape. However, it is not necessary that the body of the guard should be frusto-conical in form,for its form will depend upon the particular form of the telephone-transmitter and of the mouthpiece, if the transmitter'has a mouthpiece, but if not of the transmitter itself. This body may be made of any suitable material, such as paper, cloth, or other equivalent composition or substance; but by'preference it will be made of white paper or of paper so light in color as to quickly show when it is soiled or fouled. If it is not made of white paper, it will by preference be made of some light material readily showing soil.

At its inner and smaller end the body is furnished with a protectingdiaphragm D, which may be secured in place in any approved manner-as, for instance, by snapping its edge into a shallow bead formed in the inner end of the body. This diaphragm may be made of any suitable material-such as mica, celluloid, paper, gelatin, or any other suitable substance or composition-made thin enough so as not to interfere with the transmission of sound-waves to the diaphragm of the transmitter. The said diaphragm might be made integral with the body; but in that case it would probably have to be made thinner thanthe same. I

It is intended, of course, that the guard shall be produced so cheaply that the users of telephones can afford to use them once and throw them away, or at least after they have been used enough to show fouling. These guards when constructed in accordance with our invention prevent contagion from dangerous microbes which have found a lodgment upon telephone-transmitters. The protecting-diaphragm of the guard in particular prevents access to the month by microbes which have lodged upon the diaphragm.

Here we may state that the diaphragms of transmitters often become extremely foul with bacilli, which there is great danger of inhaling with the breath when a person is talking into the transmitter.

In view of the foregoing statements we would have it understood that we do not limit ourselves to making the guards of any particular material nor in any particular form; but hold ourselves at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of our invention.

Having fully described our invention,-what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- A sanitary guard for the mouthpieces of telephone-transmitters, consisting of a, body specification in the presence of two subscrib adapted to fithwithin tle salild mguthgieces ing-Witnesses. an to cover 1; e outer e ge t ereo an pro- 1 vided with a protecting-diaphragm arranged 5 to close its inner end so as to prevent the out- Ward passage of bacilli from the diaphragm Y'Vitnesses: into the mouth of the user. FRED C. EARLE,

In testimony whereof we have signed this 0. R. PAIGE. 

